It’s the Derby day and it couldn’t have been anymore important than this. We are sitting on 6th position, tied up on points with Chelsea and whoever wins today at Stamford Bridge goes to third position behind Liverpool and City, with only 2 points difference to the latter. Liverpool are on a brilliant run but they will have their bad moments at some point, all we can do is play our best, accumulate as much points as possible and hope for the best.
Right, so what has happened which is favoring us? Man City lost to Brighton even after scoring first – that’s 3 very important points lost for them. Forest, which sits above us just lost to Newcastle. Aston Villa lost. And not that it’s important to talk about other small clubs but Tottenham just lost at home to Ipswich Town. All we have to do is win and we are back in the mix.
Line up is out. Odegaard is back and we have our strongest playing XI on the pitch against Chelsea. Timber and White on either side with Gabriel and Saliba in the center, a midfield of Partey, Rice and Odegaard with Martinelli, Havertz and Saka up top. That’s our best line up, may be Calafiori in place of White but there isn’t much drop in quality.
We will have to see whether Odegaard picks up his form after being side-lined with injury for couple of months now. We need him at his best though.
The only thing that’s wrong about today is Michael Oliver. After gifting City 9 extra minutes and a win against 10-men Arsenal, he has been rewarded to referee a London Derby which features Arsenal. Stay prepared to see some silly decisions.
Chelsea have improved massively under Maresca. Mikel, after our Champions League loss, said in the press conference that we can go and win at Stamford Bridge if we play the way we played against Inter Milan. I think it’s foolish to commit such statement against a rival for a Derby and when you are a visiting side. It just puts some un-needed pressure on the players, managers and everyone around the club. UNLESS you walk the talk.
Most importantly, we need to fix our basics and get back to the attacking football. That 10-men game against City has dented our confidence and we need to get out of it. We have failed to score against Inter, against Bournemouth and Newcastle and that’s not a good thing. Frankly, I love Marti but he should force his way to the middle and start contributing in terms of goals and assists. It’s not like he hasn’t got chances.
Right, a short one today. Game’s in 15 odd minutes and hopefully we paint the bridge red today. See you during the game.
Cheers
Chelsea GK is a real crap, must say
Hoopah
He flaps more than a Democrat on election night and we just haven’t put him under enough pressure.
I wouldn’t be opposed to having Ethan come on up top for Havertz, playing more as a false 9, but that would never happen…after all we already have Merino in the middle of the box playing the Havertz role
Does anyone know (or actually remember) the last time Jesus scored in the PL?
based on the ooportunties that are arising, this match could have more than one goal left in it
Marc—last January?
TRVL
Last January as in 2024 or 2023?
that ought ot keep Saka out of the asshole break
we need 3 far more than their little upstart
Jesus Christ Tross…Jesus was likely offside anyways
if only Ode could shoot even half as well as he passes
Cucurela is a real cheating c–t. Should be a good fit at Barca
Marc
November 10, 2024, 6:10 pm
TRVL
Last January as in 2024 or 2023?
2022!
we’re fucking pathetic in front of goal…so much so that I miss the clinical finishing of Eddie LOL
Marc
The last time Jesus scored – I’ll ask my Grandad.
Ambarish—I meant the one before his most recent score…I think last January
I don’t agree with Wrighty.. I don’t take this result and we were sh*t for most part of the game.
Trossard has lost his spark, Martinelli is not his self.. ode will take his time to pick things up.. our defence is penetrable now.
Not good enough.
International break coming up.. sad way to get into the break.
Guys,
Just a gentle reminder.. there’s a ‘subscribe’ option between the post. I would love to see you in the email subscription list.
I have been trying to get into mediavine, a much better ads serving utility and it has very stringent criteria… Blogs 10x bigger than LiR hasn’t broken into it, but I’m trying and with all your help, I could do it in a year..
Appreciate your help.
Ambarish
Are you serious?
Jesus hasn’t scored in the PL since 2022?
Marc
It was Jan 2023, and then he scored last week I guess… Was just continuing on the banter… :))
Morning all, it was early wee hours after the game, so went to bed and actually found sleep quickly most likely because we managed to get a point from a Chav’s side that are still finding its feet under a new manager of a few months, and yet he has a rather disjointed yet young talented side above us on GD, in 3rd place. The same couldn’t have been said about our generational rookie after 3 months or so…..
The Mail online and Mirror have MA throwing our players under the bus for dropping points last night.
“Furious Mikel Arteta slams his Arsenal players for their ‘unacceptable’ 1-1 draw with Chelsea… and reveals his ‘biggest fear’ in the title race after slipping NINE points adrift of Liverpool
Gunners let lead slip after conceding to Pedro Neto wonder goal on Sunday
Arsenal boss also left worrying about injuries to Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice”
Let’s take a closer inspection of MA’s claims.
Did the players choose the same old tired tactics repetitively used this season?
Not at all.
Did the players choose to play Ode for the full 90 and Rice until he broke and needed subbing?
Not at all.
Would it have been better to play Rice and Ode for 45 minutes only and then let Ethan cover for Ode not the cumbersome Merino and Skelly on for Rice.
Probably, because Ode only managed 31 successful passes all game, but did assist, and why we finally scored from open play. Rice also only made 31 successful passes at 84% and 2 from 3 successful tackles for his 71 minutes offering zero creativity. Not his fault being a CB and 6 with ideas above his football station induced by MA.
We can debate the game, but we were as disjointed as the Chavs were, even though we had our best starting 11, starting. MA was playing with a full deck player wise just not tactically.
Why have our set piece goals dried up?
Mostly because of Rice’s delivery as TRVL pointed out yesterday – too high and not enough pace and managers are savvy to out dark arts meeting like for like.
Where did we lose the game?
We were never in control, Enzo was prepared to stifle, as did MA, so the game was fractured with end to end counters for me all too often breaking down and turned over.
However, we were blunt up top again with Havertz only making 10 successful passes and 1 unsuccessful tackle in 90 minutes, but was offside 4 times. Our elite striker right there who MA runs into the defensive cover ground, instead of letting Kai stay up top and leave the defending to others.
I mean why was the lumbering Merino playing up top missing chances, in the box with Kai nowhere to be seen?
That is a MA question to answer, not throw at his players’ lack of goals.
Were MA’s subs effective?
Simply put: No! We left our only potential game changer on the bench: Nwaneri, and went with his usual no goals Jesus and Trossard who needs to start to score goals most of the time. Hardly worrying subs for the opposing manager, just expected and obviously planned for because between then they managed one shot off target and 18 successful passes. Super-subs they are not!
Enzo, the PL rookie manager’s (not inexperienced) subs did what was asked of them and levelled the game.
It was a cagey and scrappy game where both sides could have won, so the draw was probably a fair result on the balance of the game.
Our only tactical change I saw last night different from the norm was Partey shadowing Palmer to good effect, but equally Palmer was carrying a niggle as he was off the pace like Ode and Rice.
Is it any surprises the Pep and his insignificant apprentice are failing at mounting a sustained title challenge? Not for me.
Whatever we may feel about the game, we dropped another 2 valuable points to a Slot’s side who look like they know how to win games even when not playing that well.
The mark of a side who can win the title.
Long way to go still, but there are no easy games in the PL this season, as Spuds found out yesterday getting superbly turned over at home by Ipswich containing and countering, and bagging their first win of the season.
Must be the new Delia pies.
I would wager that no team likes going to the south downs’ clubs because all 3 clubs have great managers and very well drilled squads who are capable of taking top 6 scalps both home and away.
The last 2 seasons we’ve witnessed the growth of the smaller PL clubs being able to nick points home and away, and where MA is now being shown for his tactical and managerial decision making frailties with our squad, that is also poorly balanced with no striker, and where our striker has to defend first….. ……….
I’ll leave you with a question, does anyone reading this believe we can win the title this year?
I don’t, and feel 5th to 8th will be our finishing place unless we but a striker of note January to be sure of a CL placing at least if he hits the ground running.
the excerpt below was in reference to Havertz’s reaction following his goal, which was quickly overturned when it was determined that he was offside:
“It’s all a bit odd from Havertz. He was always hugely supported and encouraged by fans while at Chelsea. They sang his song for years while he was desperately average. It’s not like he left in bad circumstances either – Arsenal came calling and he jumped at the chance to join them.
And it’s hardly like he was getting too much notice from the fans anyway – there was hardly much booing, maybe there was a light grumble in the stadium but nothing pointed or vicious towards Havertz from what we could see.
We don’t expect him to not celebrate – that’s fine. But shushing fans who hadn’t even been giving you stick is a bit rich. Of course the irony is that it has now inflamed their sensibilities, and the “silky German” will now be getting much more abuse than before”
After reading this I now fully understand why our gangly non-Striker and our little project manager have developed such a seemingly unbenchable bond…both have an entirely unwarranted chip burrowing a hole in their respective shoulders and neither can read a fucking room to save their lives…just two entitled self-involved pees in a pod I guess…certainly not the end of the world but an interesting observation nonetheless, as it suggests that he takes no blame whatsoever for his professional shortcomings, much like the man who gifted him a permanent starting gig and king’s ransom to boot
Kai Bergkamp had another brain fart when he stood in an offside position at a free kickeven though he could see along the whole side he was offside that is inexcusable. But then we wouldn’t have had this embarrassing moment.
“Mikel Arteta blasted his Arsenal side for letting another lead slip in the Premier League after a 1-1 draw with Chelsea, ranting that it was ‘so poor’ not to seal victory at Stamford Bridge.”
Well fuck me who was the idiot that bought those players and who was the fucktard that set up the game plan, starting XI for that match? Mirror mirror on the wall who is the dumbest manager of them all.
If the Kroenkeys want to piss away their money on a failed project, that is there business, but don’t get your knickers twisted when the fans get in your face. For me it means I will not spending a cent on Arsenal merch nor paywall to watch the Arteta shitshow.
On the positive side, keep on going son and we will be out early from the remaining three competitions and I can find something else to do in the time slot when Arsenal would play.
Quote of the day” Arteta’s Arsenal with their delusional fans are the entitled ones without titles.
Tony—as to the question you’ve posed, I concur with your no title sentiments, although I still think we might finish somewhere between 3rd and 5th…I strongly believe several of the sides currently occupying the top 8 will struggle to maintain their current pace in the coming months, which will allow us to remain somewhat relevant…that said, it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if we failed to qualify for the CL…let’s face it, as it currently stands we’re the same amount of points away from being in 15th as we are to being in 1st, which speaks volumes about the state of our franchise…you simply can’t adopt a fine margins approach to football unless you have the necessary horses and a shit ton of luck on your side, especially when it comes to injuries…so why would our dim-witted manager, who most believed was a real Striker and proper Xhaka replacement away from truly mattering, opt for such a low percentage course of action…I’ll tell you why, he’s a no-balls chickenshit manager, who would rather burn this whole thing down than face his fears or admit he was wrong
Longstuff!
TRVL
“I still think we might finish somewhere between 3rd and 5th”
At present there are 4 teams on 19 points and 3 teams on 18 points. The managers are Maresca, Fucktard, Nuno, Hürzeler, Marco, Howe and Don Unai, all decent ones with ambitions for Europe and something to prove. Depending on how well the EPL teams will do in Europe we may have 5 slots for the CL. That means 7 teams will fight for either 2 or 3 spots. On the heels of these 7 there are 4 additional ones and two have as a minimum requirement finish with a CL spot, Sp*ds, Bournemouth, Brentford and United with the new manager bounce.
This could turn out to be the mother of all battles where as in WW1 young lions are led by donkeys into this battle. Not very hopeful this season and it started so promising.
Killroy—you know me, I’m always the eternal optimist lol…keep in mind, I did state that I certainly wouldn’t be shocked if we failed to qualify…I just feel we have enough on the defensive end of things to avoid relative obscurity in the standings…Cheers
From the Athletic a damaging assessment:
“Predicting who won’t win it (the EPL title) is far easier and Arsenal’s tally offers a strong suggestion that this won’t be their year, again. Their record at this stage in the last three seasons reads…
• 2022-23; 28 points after 11 matches
• 2023-24; 24 points after 11 matches
• 2024-25; 19 points after 11 matches
TRVL– Same here an optimist, and I too have the believe we can secure CL competition for next season, but it is going to be hard. You only win something with your best players available, that means few injuries and no red cards. Injuries are part of the game, but who in the squad can plug the hole, that again is with our MIT.